Comedian-in-Chief: Presidential Jokes as Enthymematic Crisis Rhetoric

To understand how jokes have functioned as part of U.S. presidents’ strategic communication, this project examined every available White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) speech over the last century, documenting various presidents’ approaches to humor. I argue that the ability to talk about difficult or taboo subjects through jokes’ deeply enthymematic ways of communicating has offered presidents expanded rhetorical spaces during crises, providing insights into why they started using humor with such routine frequency. Working with multiple factors shaping the modern presidency, presidents have used the elastic and inventive nature of enthymematic joking in attempts to move pressing issues outside immediate lines of criticism. The use of jokes in presidential communication is charted through three periods of WHCD. Several implications are drawn from this analysis, including the risks of humor as a rhetorical strategy

Mark Zuckerberg Interview On CNBC From 2004

CNBC Interview with Mark Zuckerberg from 2004https://epublications.marquette.edu/zuckerberg_files_videos/1061/thumbnail.jp

Zuckerberg One-on-One (September 2011)

Mark Zuckerberg is interviewed on CNBC in 2011https://epublications.marquette.edu/zuckerberg_files_videos/1051/thumbnail.jp

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott on CNBC\u27s Closing Bell

Closing Bell and Kudlow & Company. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott interviewed about the damages to his home inflicted by Hurricane Katrina and his fight with State Farm Insurance for the money to rebuild his property; also his interest in investigating the insurance providers for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Other topics discussed include: stock market; housing market; consumer spending in upscale markets; use of the internet to find new musical talent; ban on foi gras in Chicago box office numbers; and state of the American economy

Buchanan and Press and Capital Report

MSNBC\u27s Buchanan & Press interview with Trent Lott. Topics discussed include: the Senate and House intelligence committees begin a pre-war investigation of intelligence gathered to justify the invasion of Iraq, no confirmed weapons of mass destruction, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes to amend rules of media ownership and ownership caps, Democrat and Republican response to FCC changes, Lott\u27s reaction to President George W. Bush\u27s public repudiation of his statement that America would have avoid all these problems if then segregationist-Strom Thrumond was elected president in 1948, and bronze bust created in the likeness of Trent Lott was recovered; Capital Report correspondent Gloria Borger interview with with Trent Lott. Topics discussed include: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes to amend rules of media ownership and ownership caps and Democrat and Republican response to FCC changes, the report that there are no weapons of mass destruction, and Lott\u27s reaction to President George W. Bush\u27s repudiation of his statement that the United States would have avoid all these problems if then-segregationist Strom Thurmond had been elected president in 1948